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HOME ECONOMICS 
POSITIONS IN 
MINNEAPOLIS 


STUDY PR EPAR ED BY 
BARBARA\WRIGHT 


REVISED BY 
MILDRED WEIGHLEY 


ce UNIVER aisha aE THE 


FNIVEASIT?: Fe ILLINOIS 


PUBLISHED BY 
WOMAN'S OCCUPATIONAL 
BUREAU 


216 MEYERS ARCADE 
MINNEAPOLIS 


MARGARET A. SMITH, MANAGER 
AUGUST 1922 





HOME ECONOMICS POSITIONS 
IN MINNEAPOLIS 


A. PURPOSE OF STUDY. 


This study is an attempt to indicate the types 
of positions in Minneapolis held by women 
trained in home economics, the educational and 
personal qualifications necessary; the range of 
salaries and the openings that are likely to de- 
velop. 


B, SCOPE. 


The managers or owners of sixty-one organiza- 
tions were interviewed. These included social 
agencies, hospitals, cafeterias, tea rooms, clubs, 
hotels and restaurants. Information was also 
obtained from The Restaurant and Hotel Keep- 
ers Association and from the Division of Home 
Economics, University of Minnesota. 


C. JOB AND SALARY ANALYSIS. 
I. DIETETICS, 


1. Hospital Dietitians. 


Each Minneapolis hospital employs one dieti- 
tian. In some hospitals the work of the dietitian 
is chiefly of the managerial type while in others 
she works more particularly with the physician 
in planning the food for patients requiring 
special dietetic care. On the whole her duties 
lie in one or all of the following fields. 


A. House Management. This involves _pur- 
chasing supplies, managing dining room and 
kitchen for nurses, internes and employees in- 
cluding the planning of menus. 


B. Instruction. Most dietitians teach dietetics 
to the pupil nurse. In some cases they also 
teach physiology and chemistry. 


C. Diets of Patient. The dietitian usually 
carries responsibility for planning and_ super- 
vision of the general diets for the patients, and, 
” consultation with the physician, the special 
iets. 


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In many hospitals, particularly in certain sec- 
tions of the country, the dietitian is being re- 
lieved of house management and allowed to de- 
vote her whole attention to the problems of diets 
for patients. Such a plan necessitates the em- 
ployment of two women where only one is now 
employed in most hospitals. 


A dietitian should be a graduate of a recog- 
nized course in home economics in which she 
should have had her major work in nutrition and 
dietetics with sciences such as chemistry, physi- 
ology, bacteriology and others as a background. 
Since her duties are likely to include those of 
house director it will be of great advantage to 
her to do some work in institution management. 
Most hospitals also require from three to four 
months’ residence in a hospital as a_ student 
dietitian after the college course. 


As the dietitian is becoming better trained her 
work is becoming more specialized. With the 
specialization has come increase in salaries. In 
Minneapolis dietitians receive from $80.00 to 
$125.00 a month and maintenance, making a sal- 
ary equivalent to $1,460 to $2,000.00 a year. 


2. Private Dietitians. 

One of the fields more recently opened up to 
the young woman who is well trained in dietetics 
is that of private dietitian. She is either employed 
by the physician to assist in the care of a num- 
ber of cases where the problem of diet must be 
carefully watched and supervised as, for ex- 
ample, in diabetes, or she may be employed by 
an individual family at the request of the physi- 
cian. In these cases the salary varies consid- 
erably but averages from $120.00 to $160.00 a 
month and maintenance. 


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II, INSTITUTION MANAGEMENT. 


Institution management is offering increasing 
opportunities, although many positions in this 
field are held by women without home economics 
training. Employers, however, prefer the home 
economics trained woman. Positions in institu- 
tion management usually require mature women 
or those possessing sufficient poise and good 
judgment to be able to handle fully the help 
employed. The personality factor is extremely 
important in this group. 


There are several kinds of workers in insti- 
tuiion management. 


1. House directors or matrons of orphans’ 
homes, private schools, colleges cooperative 
homes and dormitories, boarding homes and 
state institutions. 


In these positions it is usual for the house di- 
rectors or matrons to purchase the food or other 
supplies, manage the kitchen and dining room 
and in most cases have general oversight of those 
housed in the institution. Salaries for such 
positions range from $40.00 to $125.00 per month 
and maintenance. 


2. Tea Room and Lunch Room Managers. 


Tea rooms and lunch rooms vary in size from 
the large dining rooms in department stores to 
the confectionery stores, where light luncheons 
are served. More women holding executive posi- 
tons are found in this field than in hotels and 
restaurants. So far few of the women in this 
business have been trained in schools of home 
economics. The manager of one large tea room 
began as a waitress. Another is a college woman 
with graduate work in home economics. The 
general opinion is that if the college girl is will- 
ing to go in and learn the business, her chance 
for success is good, but she cannot expect to 
start as a manager. 


The necessary personal qualifications are en- 
ergy, a shrewd business sense, and ability to 


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manage help. All emphasize the latter as very 
important. The hours vary from six to eleven a 
day, the work is hard, and the manager must be 
ready in an emergency to take the place of the 
dishwasher, the cook or the pantry girl. What 
she can make in a tea room of her own is prob- 
lematical, but managers on salaries receive from 
$1,500.00 to $5,000.00 a year. Assistants in tea 
rooms receive from $60.00 to $100.00 per month 
and partial maintenance. 


3. Cafeteria Managers. 

Managerial positions in commercial cafeterias 
are not very extensively held by women, but 
women are frequently employed to manage em- 
plovees’ cafeterias in factories, banks and other 
large institutions, in schools and colleges and in 
the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. Managers of such 
cafeterias usully receive from $100.00 a month 
to $175.00 and their meals. Assistant managers 


- are frequently employed in the larger cafeterias 


and receive from $75.00 to $100.00 per month. 


4. Hotel, Restaurant and Club Managers. 

Hotels and clubs employ women as_house- 
keepers, but not many have yet put women in 
charge of dining rooms. A few have, and there 
will be more and more openings, as more women 
qualify with training, maturity and _ executive 
ability. 


UI. SOCIAL WORK. 

There are a large number of opportunities for 
the home economics trained woman in the field 
of social work. . She should possess in addition 
to her home economics training, some training 
in social work and a social view point in order 
to understand the methods employed in dealing 
with families and individuals where social mal- 
adjustments exist. : 





1. Settlement Houses. 


A few of the settlement houses are employing 
women trained in home economics to teach 
classes in millinery, sewing and cooking and to 
do home visiting. In one of the settlements this 
person also manages the dining room and kitchen 
for the home residents. The value of the trained 
woman is recognized by the directors of all the 
settlement houses and if funds permitted more 
such women would be employed. Salaries range 
from $80.00 to $100.00 a month and maintenance. 


2. Visiting Housekeeping. 

There are a good many positions which can 
be included under this title. The person em- 
ployed by a social agency who plans budgets 
and supervises expenditures of families where 
assistance is being provided, and the one who 
goes into homes to assist in a variety of house- 
hold problems which may directly or indirectly 
be the cause of trouble may be considered in this 
group. For such work a woman must have an 
unusual amount of teaching and _ executive 
ability in addition to her understanding of the 
problem. Good preparation for this work is a 
coliege course in home economics combined with 
courses in sociology or with training in a school 
for social workers. The salary varies from 
90.00 to $150.00 per month. 


3. Nutrition. 


There are several types of positions open in 
the social field for those who have had home 
economics with emphasis on the nutrition work. 


A nutrition specialist works with the under- 
nourished children in school supervising their 
food and other habits which relate to the health 
of the child. Much of this work is done through 
the “‘Nutrition Clinics.” ' 


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= 


Certain organizations maintain — pre-school 
clinics in which a nutrition expert works with 
the physician to secure the right cooperation 
and understanding of the home to effect the de- 
sired results. 


Dispensaries employ a nutrition expert to 
whom cases requiring special diet help are re- 
ferred. 


IV. EXTENSION WORK. 

A home demonstration agent employed jointly. 
under the Smith-Lever bill by the United States 
Department of Agriculture, the county and the 
University, carries to the women of the county 
information in regard to homemaking. Clubs 
and societies already formed sometimes give part 
of their time to studies directed by the home 
demonstration agent, and new groups of women 
also are organized. Because the work is with 
mature and experienced women, a person enter- 
ing this field should have not only a technical 
knowledge of home economics gained through a 
college course, but actual experience with home 
life and household problems. Experience in 
teaching is advisable. The work requires a 
woman with a large amount of enthusiasm and 
ability to organize. 


A. Kinds of Workers. 

1. State leaders and assistant state leaders — 

whose work is largely administrative in character. 

2. County workers who are located in an indi- 

vidual county and who carry responsibility for 

initiating, organizing and carrying out various 
projects within their county. . 


a 


HANA 


3. State specialists who are employed in co- 
operation with the counties to carry on special 
projects. Mose states have from two to five 
specialists. Minnesota for example has a special- 
ist in care of the following: Nutrition, Textiles ” 
and Clothing, Home Management and Poultry. 
Extension positions pay from $1,800.00 to 
$3,000.00 for 11 months work. 


D. SUMMARY. 

Dietetics and institution management as in tea 
rooms and cafeterias are becoming wider fields 
for women. Nutrition work with schools and 
social organizations, extension work in county 
and state, are modern developments and already 
well established. Business men are open-minded 
about the value of trained women in hotels, clubs 
and restaurants. The importance of home eco- 
nomics training as a preparation for many oc- 


cupations is itbafs inpRddsipety Feeoghtedd. Open- 


ings will continue to appear in these fields and 


hs ae “4 ere overt af adequately 


UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


